The engineer, Kirk Sorensen, went on to found the company Flibe Energy, which is working to bring a molten salt reactor design to commercial fruition (see bottom of the article).įlibe’s version of the molten salt reactor is known as a liquid-fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR). He was looking for a way to power spacecraft and communities on the moon, and thought a thorium molten salt reactor could fit the bill. Although some work continued at Oak Ridge in the 1980s, funding dried up and few advances were made.ĭecades passed until, in 2000, an engineer working at Nasa’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama came across the technology in a book. But in the 1970s, the US Atomic Energy Commission shut down the programme. Work on molten salt reactors began in the 1940s at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee as a project to develop an alternative to jet engines for bomber aircraft. By the mid-1950s, scientists had turned their attention to using the reactors in nuclear power stations and had built a test reactor that ran from 1965 to 1969, generating 8MWth. The molten salt reactor, as it is known, is listed alongside gas- and sodium-cooled fast reactors as clean, safe and cost-effective technology for the fourth generation of nuclear power. An international nuclear futures task force picked it from a pile of 100 concepts as one of six that it believes represent the future of nuclear energy. One of those thorium concepts from the early years has seen a resurgence of interest. Thorium-based fuels could generate power in heavy-water reactors, high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, boiling and pressurised light-water reactors, and fast neutron reactors.īut never has the level of investment in thorium come close to that pumped into the uranium fuel cycle, which at the birth of the nuclear industry was favoured because of the military applications of its by-product, plutonium. Over the years, nuclear scientists have built demonstrators of new reactor designs that could use the element. Research into the thorium fuel cycle began more than 60 years ago, but so far the technology has yet to find itself in the spotlight. Using thorium to generate nuclear power has captivated more than one generation of engineers. For those who have not heard the tune, it’s about thorium – a naturally occurring element found in rock and soil (see box, facing page). They say that with the correct technology it can generate safer, cheaper and cleaner nuclear power than uranium. Putting thorium through its paces: Thor at the Halden reactor in NorwayĪ group of evangelists are singing the praises of a new type of nuclear fuel. ![]() Search our library and digital resources.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |